Gas combustion type hair drier

ABSTRACT

A gas combustion type hair drier  1  includes a gas tank  29 , for storing combustion gas, a combustor  11  for combusting combustion gas supplied from the gas tank  29 , a blower  17  exchanging heat resulting from the combustor  11 , a dry battery  31  serving as a power supply to rotate a motor  19  of the blower  17 , an igniter device for igniting the combustion gas, an ejector  7  for allowing outside air to be drawn due to negative pressure created by a flow speed of the combustion gas to be supplied to the combustor  11 , and a casing  3  that receives the combustor  11 , the blower  17  and the ejector  7 , with the combustor  11  having a plurality of combustion chambers  85  comprised of non-circular outer peripheral walls around a periphery of a gas combustor section  73.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of International Application No.PCT/JP01/11643 filed Dec. 28, 2001.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to gas combustion type hair driers and,more particularly, to a combustion type cordless hair drier that uses acombustion flame, resulting from liquefied petroleum gas (hereinafterreferred to as LPG), as a heat source and, further, that is comprised ofa battery and a blower to be available for a portable use.

BACKGROUND ART

A technology which has been studied by the present inventor is shown inFIGS. 1 and 2. A hair drier 101, devised for a portable use to utilizeLPG, is comprised of a premixing chamber 105 disposed inside acylindrical case 103 to allow LPG and air to be mixed, a combustion dish107 composed of a porous combustion plate that blows out mixed gasobtained in the premixing camber 105, and an ignition plug 109 thatignites mixed gas ejected from the combustion dish 107 while including aprimary combustion chamber 111 serving as a combustion cylinder tocombust the above described mixed gas, a secondary combustion chamber115 that performs nonflammable combustion through a combustion catalyst113 in a forward area of the primary combustion chamber 111, and a heatexchanger 117 composed of a star shaped peripheral wall formed betweenperipheries of the above described primary combustion chamber 111 andthe secondary combustion chamber 115 and the cylindrical case 103.

Also, disposed in a rear side wall of the premixing chamber 105 is aplurality of air apertures 119 to introduce outside air, and use is madeof ceramics such as porous cordierite series and porous alumina as rawmaterials to generally serve as a carrier body of the combustor catalyst113.

Further, disposed in the rear end wall of the premixing chamber 105 is ablower 125 that is comprised of a direct electric motor 121 mounted on arearward area of the above premixing chamber 105, and an axial flow fan123 adapted to be rotationally driven by the direct electric motor 121to allow air, required for combustion in the cylindrical case 103 and alarge volume of hot blast to be delivered.

The LPG tank, for storing LPG, to be supplied to the above describedpremixing chamber 105, and the battery (mainly a primary battery),serving as the power supply of the ignition plug 109, are accommodatedin a handle, which is not shown, connected to the above describedcylindrical case 103.

By the way, with the combustion type hair drier 101 of the related art,since air required for combustion of LPG is drawn through the pluralityof air apertures 119 partly from a volume of blast delivered by theblower 125 needed to generate a large volume of hot blast, theoccurrence of drop in the voltage of the battery, to cause drop in theabove described volume of blast, results in short of air in volume to berequired for combustion of LPG. As a result, a probability occurs inwhich mixed gas with oxygen deficiency arriving at the outlet 127(exhaust port) is brought into contact with air at the outlet 127followed by a resultant flame to cause combustion.

Moreover, it was found out that, without using the combustion catalyst113 of FIG. 1, if the primary combustion chamber 111 is improved toallow combustion to internally occur in the cylinder, the combustionflame advances along the cylinder to the outlet 127 (exhaust port) and,hence, it was hard to effectuate combustion to obtain a minimal volumeof heat required for the hair drier 101 unless a remarkably longcylinder or a combustion cylinder with a large diameter are employed. Inthis respect, the minimal volume of heat refers to a value of, forinstance, a heat output of 450 W/H under a combustion condition of LPGwith a value of approximately 390 Kcal/H. Consequently, the combustiontype hair drier 101 of the related art takes the size two times thenormal electric type hair drier and, with such a dimension, there occursan issue of a practicability as a portable unit.

Further, as a method for efficiently achieving combustion withoutoccurrence of the flame, although development work has been undertakento utilize the combustion catalyst 113 as shown in FIG. 1 set forthabove, due to the presence of this case suffered from a resultant heataccumulated in the center of the combustion catalyst 113 while, also,exchange of heat with blast is performed only through the heat exchanger117 around the combustion catalyst 113, no probability occurs inexchange of heat accumulated in the center of the combustion catalyst113 at which the maximum temperature rise occurs and experimental testshave revealed a result with a remarkably poor efficiency.

Moreover, due the presence of the surface area of the outlet 127resulting from the heat exchanger 117 in an actual practice to lie in aless surface area, a pressure loss in blast takes place, causing anissue of reduction in a volume of blast.

In addition, a serious issue arising in the systems in the former andthe latter set forth above suffers from an inability of achieving rapidcooling at the combusted portion even after the supply of LPG hasstopped when in non-use and, therefore, it is probable for a fairly hightemperature remains for a long period of time. Especially, even after anelapse of twenty minutes, it is hard for a hand to touch the unit inwhich the combustion catalyst 113 is utilized.

Also, although another improvement has been proposed to automaticallyoperate the blower 125 for the purpose of cooling a condition in which,even after the use of the hair drier 101 has been terminated, the hightemperature remains, an issue arises in that the portable unit, neededfor standby between the end of use of the hair drier 101 and the end ofcooling, becomes inconvenient and incommodious in use.

Further, even with the portable type cordless unit, it is required for aworking condition, needed to a minimal extent, of the hair drier 101 tohave a heat value of 450 W/H, converted in electric power, with acombustion energy of approximately 390 Kcal/H. Also, because of theportable type hair drier 101, it is required to have a size and weightwhich do not exceed those of the commercially available electric typehair drier in the related art practice.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

This invention has been made to address the issues set forth above andhas an object to provide a combustion type hair drier which enables acombustion efficiency and a heat exchange rate to be improved so as notto allow a combustion flame, serving as a heat source, resulting fromLPG to eject outward while enabling reduction in pressure loss in blast.

To achieve the above object, a first aspect of a gas combustion typehair drier comprises a gas tank for storing combustion gas therein, acombustor section for combusting combustion gas supplied from the gastank, a cylindrical combustor having the combustor section, a blower forexchanging heat resulting from the combustor, a power supply forrotating a motor of the blower, an igniter for igniting the combustiongas, an ejector for drawing outside air resulting from negative pressurecaused by a flow speed of combustion gas supplied to the combustor, anda casing in which the combustor, the blower and the ejector areaccommodated, wherein the combustor further has a plurality ofcombustion chambers composed of non-circular outer peripheral wallsformed around a periphery of the combustor section.

Further, the outer peripheral walls may have recessed configurationsextending in radial directions.

Accordingly, due to the occurrence of negative pressure created in theejector by an ejector effect due to an ejection speed of combustion gas,atmospheric air required for combustion is drawn to flow in. Airrequired for combustion is automatically drawn in proportion to anincrease and a decrease of combustion gas and, even if voltage dropoccurs in the battery, no probability occurs in incomplete combustion.

And, since the combustion flame is created from the gas combustionsection at the center portion of the combustor toward the plurality ofcombustion chambers formed in recessed shapes in radial direction toform a petal in a thin and uniform manner, heat values resulting fromthe respective combustion chambers are efficiently transferred to theair stream delivered from the blower to provide an increased heatexchange rate.

A second aspect of a gas combustion type hair drier of the presentinvention, related to the combustion type hair drier of the firstaspect, has air intake portions of the ejector around which an intakeair stabilizing member is disposed so as to prevent an air stream frombeing influenced to be unstable condition resulting from blast deliveredfrom the blower to thereby achieve stabilization of intake air.

Further, the intake air stabilizing member may be composed of porous rawmaterial such as wire gauze, sintered metal, porous ceramic and porousplastic.

Accordingly, since the intake air stabilizing member is disposed at theintake air port area, the air stream is prevented from being influencedfrom the unstable condition caused by blast delivered from the blower.

And, while the porous raw material is low in cost and simple but plays aroll to achieve an effective work as a rectifying action of the airstream, there is an effect of protecting a disturbance from occurring atthe intake air port area.

In a third aspect of a gas combustion type hair drier of the presentinvention, related to the combustion type hair drier of the firstaspect, the combustor is located between the blower and an outlet of thecasing while an outer peripheral wall of the combustor has a portion tobe partially held in contact with an inner wall of the casing, and airflow passage portions are defined between an outer peripheral wall ofthe combustor and an inner peripheral wall of the casing.

Accordingly, the air flow passages defined between the outer peripheralwall of the combustor and the inner peripheral wall of the casingenables the heat value of the combustor to be efficiently transferred tothe air stream delivered from the blower through the outer peripheralsurface of the combustor to increase the heat exchange rate, resultingin reduction in pressure loss.

In a fourth aspect of a gas combustion type hair drier of the presentinvention, related to the combustion type hair drier of the firstaspect, the gas combustor section includes a gas straight blow limitersegment disposed at an ejecting portion of the combustion gas within thecombustor to prevent the combustion gas from directly advancing whilepromoting to combustion gas to flow out in a radial direction.

As a consequence, since the gas combustor section is provided with gasstraight blow limiter segment disposed at the ejecting portion of thegas combustor, the combustion flame is created from the gas combustorsection at the center portion of the combustor in the radial directionsin a thin and uniform manner, thereby precluding a flame from occurringat the exhaust port of the combustor.

Although design is made in a way to limit combustion gas with a view toavoiding occurrence of accident wherein, when a probability occurs in adeficiency such as an abnormal increase in gas for combustion, the flamecomes out from the outlet for the hot blast, even when the deficiencyoccurs by any chance to cause combustion gas to eject in a volume morethan required, a large volume of air flowing through the peripheries ofthe combustion chambers by the action of the blower is mixed withcombustion gas immediately in front of the outlet, no probability occursfor the flame to go to the outside (wherein excessive air is unable tomaintain a flame combustion and the flame is distinguished).

In a fifth aspect of a gas combustion type hair drier of the presentinvention, related to the combustion type hair drier of the firstaspect, a combustion catalyst is disposed in the outlet portion of thecombustor.

Consequently, since the combustion catalyst has a effect ofdistinguishing the flame to be nonflammable, it becomes possible toreliably preclude the occurrence of the flame resulting from the exhaustport of the combustor.

In a sixth aspect of a gas combustion type hair drier of the presentinvention, related to the combustion type hair drier of the firstaspect, the gas combustion gas includes LPG.

Accordingly, since LPG combusts followed by occurrence of a large volumeof warm steam, the hot blast with the large volume of steam does notgive damages to the hairs with a favorable influence thereon.

In a seventh aspect of a gas combustion type hair drier of the presentinvention, related to the combustion type hair drier of the firstaspect, the ejector further includes the combustion gas storage chamber,a mixed gas generating chamber, and a filter disposed between thecombustion gas storage chamber and the mixed gas generating chamber toremove impurities and dusts from the combustion gas.

Accordingly, it is possible to create mixed gas with a high purity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a partial longitudinal cross sectional view of a combustiontype hair drier to which study has been undertaken by the inventor.

FIG. 2 is a left side view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the present invention and is alongitudinal cross sectional view of a combustion type hair drier.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view of a vicinity of an ejector of theembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged side view of a combustor of the embodiment ofpresent invention.

FIG. 6 is a left side view of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged side view of a combustor of another embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 8 is a left side view of FIG. 7.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, a detail description is made of a gas combustion type hairdrier of an embodiment according to the present invention with referenceto the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 3, a hair drier 1 of the presently filed embodimentincludes a casing 3 in a cylindrical shape that takes the form of acylindrical tubular configuration made of stainless steel in thepresently filed embodiment, and disposed on a side wall of the casing 3is a handle section 5 made of a plastic case elongated in a directionsubstantially intersecting a longitudinal direction of the casing 3.

Internally received in the casing 3 are an ejector 7 to allow fuel, suchas LPG, and air to be mixed with one another to form mixed gas ascombustion gas, an ignition device such as an ignition plug 9 forigniting mixed gas resulting from the ejector 7, and a combustor 11 thatallows mixed gas, ignited with the ignition plug 9, to be combusted.Also formed in the ejector 7 are air intake ports 13 that draw air to beintroduced into an interior of the ejector 7.

Further, internally mounted in the casing 3 is a blower 17 which islocated rearward (rightward in FIG. 3) of the ejector 7 to allow air,heated by the combustor 11, to be delivered to an outlet 15 of thecasing 7. As the blower 17, a direct electric motor 19 is installed onan inner wall surface of the casing at a rear side thereof by means of abracket 21 formed with an air flow passage, and an axial flow fan 23 isfixedly mounted on a rotor shaft of the direct electric motor 19.

Also, a rear end of the casing 3 is covered with a wall surface formedwith a large number of apertures 25 for drawing air for the sake ofsafety, and detachably mounted to a forward end (rightmost end in FIG.3) of the casing 3 is a nozzle 27 serving as an outlet for hot blast.

Internally mounted in the handle section 5 are a gas tank 29 thataccumulates fuel gas, such as LPG, to supply fuel gas to the ejector 7,and a dry battery case 33 that allows a power supply, such as two piecesof dry batteries 31, to be detachably received therein to activate thedirect electric motor 19 of the blower 17.

Moreover, disposed at a bottom wall of the handle section 5 is a chargevalve 35, that enable LPG to be replenished, which in turn communicateswith a lower end of the gas tank 29. Disposed on an upper end surface ofthe gas tank 29 is a crater valve 37, to which a suction core 39 for LPGis mounted and extends inside the gas tank 29. Additionally, disposed onthe crater valve 37 is a gas control knob 41, adapted to adjust acombustion gas closure state, that protrudes outward from a bore portion43 formed in a side wall of the handle section 5.

Further, disposed on the side wall (left side surface in FIG. 3) of thehandle section 5 is a switch 45 that functions to allow a power switchof the blower 17 and gas closure of the crater valve 37 to be turned onor turned off in an interlocking manner, with the switch 45 beingconstructed to be interlocked with a closure lever 47 that switches overON/OFF statuses of gas closure of the crater valve 37. Moreover, in thepresently filed embodiment, the switch 45 is structured to be adjustablein three stages involving, for instance, a stage a in which both thepower supply and the crater valve 37 are turned off, a stage b in whichthe power supply is turned on whereas the crater valve 37 is turned offto allow only cold blast to be generated, and a stage c in which boththe power supply and the crater valve 37 are turned on to allow hotblast to be generated.

Also, the crater valve 37 is in communication with a gas flow passage,such as a gas supply pipe 49 for the purpose of supplying LPG to theejector 7.

Furthermore, incorporated in the handle section 5 is an ignitionpiezoelectric element 51, forming a part of an ignition device, to whichan ignition knob 53 for generating a high electricity is connected andprotrudes outside from the side wall of the handle section 5. Thepiezoelectric element 51 is connected to the ignition plug 9 by means ofa wiring 55 extending through an insulator 57.

Referring also to FIG. 4, to describe the ejector more in detail,disposed in the ejector 7 are an LPG storage chamber 61 that stores LPGsupplied from the gas tank 29 through the gas supply pipe 49, and amixed gas generating chamber 63 that allows LPG and air to be mixed toproduce mixed gas to be introduced to the combustor 11, with the airintake ports 13 extending through the side wall of the mixed gasgenerating chamber 63.

Moreover, disposed between the LPG storage chamber 61 and the mixed gasgenerating chamber 63 is a filter 63 by which impurities and dusts areremoved form LPG, and an orifice 67 that allows LPG, which has passedthrough the filter 65, to be ejected at a high speed closer to anacoustic velocity. Formed at a substantially center of a pin-hole disc69 in a circular plate shape is a pin-hole with a diameter of 100

m serving as the orifice 67. Also, use is made of sintered metal, as thefilter 65, that has a pin-hole with a diameter of, for instance, 10 to30

m.

Further, a forward end of an ejector body 59 serves as an ejectorportion of combustion gas (mixed gas) to be delivered to the combustor11 and protrudes into an interior of a rear end of the combustor 11whereupon it is mounted to a stopper 71 to allow a forward end of theejector body 59 to support a gas combustor section 73 such that itextends to the interior of the combustor 11. Disposed in the gascombustion combustor section 73 is a direct advance limiter segment 75that limits direct advance of combustion gas resulting from mixed gas,upon ignition and combustion thereof, delivered from the mixed gasgenerating chamber 63 to promote flow of combustion gas mainly in aradial, sidewise direction.

The direct advance limiter segment 75 is formed of, for instance, astainless wire gauze formed in a cylindrical cage with 40 to 60 meshesin a way to surround a periphery of a gas ejector port 77 that allowsmixed gas delivered from the mixed gas generating chamber 63 to eject,and further overlapped over the wire gauze 79 of 40 to 60 meshes at aforward end surface of the cylindrical cage is a stainless steel wiregauze 81 with 80 to 120 meshes.

Referring further to FIG. 5, the ignition plug 9 is installed inside thecombustor 11 at a position in close proximity to the forward end of thegas combustor section 73.

Further, a peripheral area of the air intake ports 13 of the ejector 7is constructed so as to be covered with, for instance, a stainless steelwire gauze 83 that serve as an intake air stabilizer member to preventair flow from being unstable caused by resulting blast from the blower17 while achieving stabilized intake of air.

The combustor 11 is located between the blower 17 and the outlet 15 ofthe casing 3, as shown in FIG. 3, and, in the presently filedembodiment, is constructed of a non-circular cylindrical body having acentral area in which the gas combustor section 73 is located in a crosssectional configuration intersecting a longitudinal axis of thecombustor 11, as viewed in FIG. 6, and eight recess-shaped combustionchambers 85 extending in radial directions in eight-splitstar-projecting configurations formed around the combustor section 73.Also, the combustor 11 may preferably be made from thin plate material,formed of copper and aluminum that have favorable heat conductivity,with a thickness of 0.2 to 0.5 mm.

More particularly, as shown in FIG. 6, the combustor 11 includes thenon-circular cylindrical body that is constructed such that outerperipheral surfaces of distal end portions of the eight-split starprojections of the combustor 11 are held in contact with an innersurface of the casing 3 and air flow passages 87 are formed betweenouter peripheral surfaces of the combustor 11, except for the distal endportions of the eight-split star projections, and the inner peripheralsurface of the casing 3.

Further, although the star projections may have 6 to 12-split shapes,the presence of a less number of splits reduces a heat exchange ratewhereas the presence of an excessively large number of splits increasesa pressure loss and, hence, in order to obtain a result in a high heatexchange rate and pressure loss, it is preferable for the starprojections to be formed in the eight-split configurations.

Furthermore, mounted on an exhaust port 89 of a forward end of thecombustor 11 is a wire gauze 91 with 20 to 60 meshes made of copper orcopper alloy having a high heat conductivity.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, a combustor 11 of another embodiment is shown in thesubstantially same structure as those of FIGS. 5 and 6 set forth aboveexcept in that combustor catalysts 93 are disposed in the outlet portionof the combustor 11, i.e., for instance, in areas of approximately onethird of exhaust areas of the respective combustion chambers 85. Forinstance, each combustor catalyst 93 includes a carrier body, that ismade from a mesh configuration or a porous plate formed by punching, andis disposed in each combustion chambers 85. Other structures of thecombustor 11 are identical to those of FIGS. 5 and 6 and, therefore,detailed description of the same is herein omitted.

With such a structure set forth above, occurrence of a flame resultingfrom the exhaust port 89 of the combustor 11 is reliably protected. Thehair drier 1 is a unit to be used by a human body and, therefore,occurrence of the flame from the outlet 15 of the casing by any chanceis not acceptable. In this respect, the combustion catalysts 93 areadvantageous in extinguishing the flame to provide a nonflammablecapability.

The hair drier 1 fabricated as a prototype on the basis of theembodiments above described above had the gas tank 29 with a capacity ofapproximately 28 ml filled with LPG mixture gas mainly composed ofbutane while two sets of alcaline batteries LR-6 are set as the drybatteries 31 forming the power supply, and demonstration test wasconducted. In this instance, a battery life was approximately two hoursin a continuous use, and LPG continued for about twenty minutes at arate of 390 kcal/H in a continuous use. The above dry batteries 31 couldbe replaced, and LPG could be charged through the charge valve 35 anytime from a commercially available small sized bomb.

A description is made of how the hair drier operates in conjunction withFIG. 3. First, the switch 45 is raised one step from the stage a to thestage b, at which the axial flow fan 23 directly connected to the directmotor 19 begins to rotate to commence delivery of blast. Then, if theswitch 45 is further raised two steps to the stage c, the closure lever47 for gas is elevated to allow LPG in the gas tank 29 to be supplied tothe LPG storage chamber 61 of the ejector 7.

Turning to FIG. 4, LPG in the LPG storage chamber 61 of the ejector 7elevates at a pressure of approximately 1.8 to 2.0 kg/cm² and passesthrough the filter 65 from the LPG storage chamber 61 whereupon LPG isejected from the orifice 67 into the mixed gas generating chamber 63 atthe speed closer to the acoustic sound. This results in creation ofnegative pressure, resulting from an ejector effect, in the mixed gasgenerating chamber 63 whereby air (in compliance with an air-fuel ratio)required for combustion is drawn from the air intake ports 13 to flowinto the mixed gas generating chamber 63, with an air stream and LPGstream are mixed to one another to form mixed gas which in turn isejected from the gas ejection port 77, disposed at the forward area,into the gas combustion chamber 73.

Accordingly, since air is automatically drawn into the mixed gasgenerating chamber 63 at a rate required for combustion in proportion toincrease or decrease in LPG, no probability with incomplete combustionwill take place even in the presence of drops in output voltages of thebatteries.

And, since the gas combustor section 73 includes the forward end faceformed of the wire gauze 81 with more fine mesh than that of the sidewall, combustion gas tends to be ejected mainly onto the peripheral areathrough the wire gauze 79 with the rough meshes formed around the sidewall.

When this takes place, depression of the ignition piezoelectric element51 causes the ignition plug 9 to generate a spark, resulting in ignitionof mixed gas ejecting from the forward end surface of the gas combustorsection 73 to allow mixed gas to combust in the gas combustor section73. Then, this combustion flame is almost caused to be outwardlyexpanded in a circular configuration from the side wall of the gascombustor section 73 such that a length of the combustion flame remainsin a value of approximately several millimeters from the gas combustorsection 73, tending to cause the frame to be expanded like a petal fromthe gas combustor section 73 at the center of the combustor 11 towardthe eight combustion chambers 85 extending in the radial direction in athin and uniform manner.

Since the air flow passages 87 between the outer peripheral surfaces ofthe star protrusions of the combustor 11 and the inner peripheralsurface of the casing 3 are so formed in a way to have increased surfaceareas, heat values of the above eight combustion chambers 85 areefficiently transferred to the air stream delivered from the blower 17to provide an increased heat exchange rate with reduction in pressureloss.

Consequently, even if the cordless hair drier 1 of the present inventionhas a dimension with an inner diameter 37 mm and a length of 115 mmsmaller than that of a bore size of a commercially available electrichair drier, combustion with a heat value of 390 kcal/H was safelysucceeded. That is, since a hot blast temperature at the outlet 15 is ofapproximately 120 C. and the casing 3 serving as the hair drier body hasa temperature of about 45 C. after LPG supply and the power switch 45has been turned off, no probability for the temperature remaining at ahigh level even when the hair drier 1 is contained directly after theuse thereof, and a safety was confirmed.

In addition, the hot blast can be adjusted to a temperature in a rangefrom 80 C. to 150 C. using the gas control knob 41. Also, due to acapability of the hair drier 1 of the present invention using LPG ascombustion gas, a large volume of warm steam is created throughcombustion of LPG without the use of water as required in a normalelectric type hair drier, resulting in no damage caused in hairs with afavorable influence. In this connection, merely a dry air stream couldbe obtained in the electric type hair drier.

From the foregoing description, it appears that, due to the provision ofthe combustor 11 serving as the combustion cylinder formed with aplurality of combustion chambers 83 so as to increase the combustionsurfaces areas as large as possible, the gas combustion type hair drier1 of the present invention may have the combustion flame in a shortenedlength, the combustion flame can be trapped within a limited area of acombustion point of the combustor 11. Also, no heat accumulation occursat the center of the combustor 11, an increased heat exchange rate canbe obtained between the heat resulting from the combustion chambers andblast delivered from the blower 17. Since the combustor 11 is comprisedof the plurality of narrow combustion chambers 83 to form the air flowpassages 85 of increased volumes in the casing 3, the combustor 11 isable not to provide adverse affect on delivery of blast from the blower17 to a level as less as possible, resulting in a capability of avoidingpressure loss.

Moreover, the present invention is not limited to particular embodimentsdescribed above and may be carried out in the other embodiments throughappropriate modifications.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As will be understood from the foregoing description of the embodimentsof the present invention, according to a first aspect of the gascombustion type hair drier of the present invention, since the ejectorgenerates the negative pressure due to the ejector effect caused by theejecting speed of combustion gas, air required for combustion can beautomatically drawn in proportion to the increase and decrease ofcombustion gas. Accordingly, even if voltage drop occurs in thebatteries with a resultant decrease in the flow rate of blast generatedby the blower, incomplete combustion can be avoided.

In addition, according to the first aspect, since the combustion framecan be created like the petal extending from the gas combustor sectionat the center of the combustor toward the plural combustion chambersextending in the radial direction S in the thin and uniform manner, theheat values of the respective combustion chambers can be transferred tothe air stream delivered from the blower in an efficient manner,resulting in an increased heat exchange rate.

Further, according to a second aspect of the gas combustion type hairdrier of the present invention, due to the provision of the intake airstabilizer member, composed of porous raw material, which is disposed atthe air intake portions of the ejector, it becomes possible to avoid theinfluence of an unstable condition of the air stream resulting from theblast delivered from the blower.

Additionally, according to the second aspect, by employing a metallicgauze, sintered metal, porous ceramic and porous plastic, which are lowin cost and simple in structure, as porous raw material, it is possibleto prevent a disturbance resulting from blast delivered from the blowerthrough effective rectification of the air stream in the vicinity of theair intake ports.

And, according to a third aspect of the gas combustion type hair drierof the present invention, the presence of the air flow passages formedbetween the outer peripheral surface of the combustor and the innerperipheral surface of the casing allows the heat value of the combustorto be efficiently transferred to the air stream delivered form theblower through the outer peripheral surface of the combustor to increasethe heat exchange rate, resulting in reduction in the pressure lossrate.

Moreover, according to a fourth aspect of the gas combustion type hairdrier of the present invention, since the gas straight blow limitersegment is disposed at the combustion gas ejector portion of thecombustor, combustion gas of the gas combustion section can be ejectedmainly in the radial direction. Consequently, the combustion flame canbe created in the thin and uniform manner in the radial direction, theflame can be prevented from occurring at the exhaust port of thecombustor.

In addition, according to a fifth aspect of the gas combustion type hairdrier of the present invention, the flame can be distinguished throughthe use of the combustion catalyst to be nonflammable, reliablyprotecting occurrence of the flame at the exhaust port of the combustor.

And, according to a sixth aspect of the gas combustion type hair drierof the present invention, an ability for LPG to combust followed by theformation of a large amount of warm steam enables the formation of hotblast with a large amount of steam without exerting damages to the hairswhile providing a favorable influence.

Additionally, according to a seventh aspect of the gas combustion typehair drier of the present invention, it is possible to form mixed gas ata high purity.

1. A gas combustion type hair drier comprising: a gas tank for stormscombustion gas therein; a cylindrical combustor provided with a gascombustor section for combusting combustion gas supplied from the gastank; a blower for exchanging heat resulting from the combustor; a powersupply for rotating a motor of the blower; an igniter for igniting thecombustion gas; an ejector for drawing outside air resulting fromnegative pressure caused by a flow speed of combustion gas supplied tothe combustor; and a casing in which the combustor, the blower and theejector are accommodated; wherein the combustor further has a pluralityof combustion chambers composed of non-circular outer peripheral wallsformed around a periphery of the gas combustor section, and wherein theouter peripheral walls have recessed configurations extending in radialdirections.
 2. The gas combustion type hair drier according to claim 1,wherein the ejector further has air intake portions around which anintake air stabilizing member is disposed so as to prevent an air streamfrom being influenced to fall in an unstable condition resulting fromblast delivered from the blower to thereby achieve stabilization ofintake air.
 3. The gas combustion type hair drier according to claim 2,wherein the intake air stabilizing member is composed of porous rawmaterial.
 4. The gas combustion type hair drier according to claim 1,wherein the combustor is located between the blower and an outlet of thecasing.
 5. The gas combustion type hair drier according to claim 1,wherein an outer peripheral wall of the combustor has a portion to bepartially held in contact with an inner wall of the casing.
 6. The gascombustion type hair drier according to claim 1, further comprising: airflow passage portions defined between an outer peripheral wall of thecombustor and an inner peripheral wall of the casing.
 7. The gascombustion type hair drier according to claim 1, wherein the gascombustor section further includes a gas straight blow limiter segmentdisposed at an ejecting portion of the combustion gas within thecombustor to prevent the combustion gas from directly advancing whilepromoting to combustion gas to flow out in a radial direction.
 8. Thegas combustion type hair drier according to claim 1, wherein thecombustor further includes an outlet portion in which a combustioncatalyst is disposed.
 9. The gas combustion type hair drier according toclaim 1, wherein the gas combustion gas includes LPG.
 10. The gascombustion type hair drier according to claim 1, wherein the ejectorfurther includes the combustion gas storage chamber, a mixed gasgenerating chamber, and a filter disposed between the combustion gasstorage chamber and the mixed gas generating chamber to removeimpurities and dusts from the combustion gas.